Cue Up The World’s Smallest Violin

Channing Crowder loves to talk. Sure, he won’t tell you very much about his one career interception or even the location of London, but he will chat about whatever thoughts pop into his mind about the NFL. For instance, did you know that this lockout is affecting the players financially? Crowder does, and he wants people to understand how his teammates and league peers are starving.

“You have the first, second-year guys – they buy a house, they buy a $100,000 car and now they’re broke and they had just enough money to make it to this next season,” Crowder said. “And I know it. I know plenty of guys that are like that and [there are] already guys trying to take loans out.” (The Sun-Sentinel)

The base rookie salary in 2010 was $325,000, so unless Crowder’s friends were all drafted early in the first round of their respective drafts, they shouldn’t have been spending one-third of their salaries on cars or 200% of their salaries on homes. But that would suggest that professional athletes are careful with their money, even in the face of a lockout that everyone on the planet knew was coming. Seriously, Amish people greeted each other on Mondays in the fall by saying, “Man, this NFL lockout is going to suck.”

At least some recently drafted rookies are surrounded by people who keep them grounded, like Jabaal Sheard of the Cleveland Browns, who lives with his family in Miami and works out on his own until he finally receives a paycheck, and Tennessee Titans rookie Jamie Harper, who lives in his family’s 3-bedroom trailer with 9 other people and hasn’t purchased a car because he’s never owned one.

“Everybody knows the NFL stands for Not For Long,” he said. “The average career is like 3 1/2 years. That money goes out as fast as it comes in.” (LA Times)

As for the players not smart enough to learn from the lessons of the thousands of professional athletes and celebrities before them, you can donate to their fund via PayPal by sending money to KissMyPovertyLineAss@TeachersAndSoldiersThinkYouSuck.com.

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And finally the Charlie Sheen and professional athlete venn diagram overlaps.

By: JC

05.25.2011 @ 12:23 PM

So you’re saying it wasn’t smart for Kris Humphries to spend $2 million on an engagement ring for a marriage that is bound to only last as long as it takes for them to film the reality show about the wedding?

“…or 200% of their salaries on homes.”
Isn’t that about what most people spend on their homes? Say you make $70K per year. Wouldn’t you be willing to look at a house in the $150K range? The average home price in Houston is about $200K (median is $150K). I don’t make that kind of money, but if I did I would definitely consider a house in that range.

This article is dumb. Non of you listened to the entire sound bite. He talks about the integrity of the game and the effect it has on the players body and mindframe. He speaks about the rookies not being able to learn the programs schemes. You take ONLY 10 seconds of a whole 10 minute interview?? That’s kind of ignorant.
Rookies are 21-23 year old guys that can make 325k..most of theses guys never saw 5k! At 21 how money smart would you really be? I’m sure none of you came out of the womb saying I’m going to save and invest this. That takes time and diligence to learn. Crowders just speaking what he has seen. None of us have ever been on a 53 man roster..I’m sure not even the writer of this article.